Today is our last mountain pass. We climbed up to over 11,000 feet today. What a thrill once I got there, the getting there was the hard part. It was gorgeous scenery with occasional water falls along the road.

Even though we climbed to the top of a pass. We descended over 7,000 feet total. So this really sped up the rest of the ride!

The best part of the ride was towards the end going into Denver. We descended through a winding canyon that opened up into the city. The road through the canyon didn't have a shoulder so I went fast and took up the whole lane weaving around the corners. I could do it all day.

For the weekend we are in Denver. The local churches have planned lots of wonderful things for us. It started with a welcoming party at the school including a DJ, cold water, snacks, haircuts, and other treats. After dinner we even had an ice cream social!

Mail came today. So, I received awesome chocolate chip cookie bars from my mom along with a petoskey stone. Also, Katie sent me artwork from her students that they drew just for me. I guess they even asked the next day if they could draw more pictures for me, so they did.

Later, a bunch (20+) went to a local bar and socialized. Since the week is so busy, this is valued time, especially as you can bike with someone all day and not talk much, as its hard to talk along the road while biking.

Today was a short day. Even though it was short we still saw a lot of pretty scenery.

And gave time to stop for drinks with the Meyers.

We're staying the night at YMCA of the Rockies Snow Mountain Ranch. This place has swimming, hotel rooms, and laundry. So I did my laundry today and went swimming (both at the same time!). It was beautiful scenery but the temp dropped to the low 40's, which is understandable considering we were almost 8,750 feet.

The short day gave us time to relax and rejuvenate for our last mountain pass tomorrow.

Sadly, beetles have been destroying most of the trees around here. So we look out at trees, but most of them are dead and brown, instead of the wonderful green that we've seen earlier.

Today I took a day off from riding. The last two days were very hard, as my knees have been getting weaker and weaker. Both days, I barely made it, but I made a point to to make it all the way.

This was a hard decision. I wanted to bike every mile, but if my knees continued as they were it would have gotten worse and worse.

So, instead I rode in a SAG (support and gear) wagon with Betsy where we transported bikers that were having difficulty, brought tires or tubes to people who needed it, and provided water along the climb to the mountain pass. It felt good to relax and help the other bikers. I felt like I was cheating as we passed the cyclists along the road.

Also, over the course of the tour I have felt like I am being pampered and in the spotlight. Everyone is excited for us and encouraging. During the celebration services, the tour and us is one of the focuses. My family and friends are interested and encouraging. And the SAG wagon drivers, kitchen crew, and other support staff are giving us their time for us. I'm not used to being pampered and the focused like this, so helping in the SAG wagon helping the other cyclists was more comfortable for me.

We also crossed the continental divide today.

On the way down from the pass we saw some beautiful landscapes.

And we trespassed and looked at this old town. It was fun looking at the buildings and trying to figure out the stories that the buildings contained.

There are mid-week services. At the end of the service today, Josh Krabbe read this benediction written by Saint Francis (?) hundreds of years ago. This tour is working to raise money and increase involvement, but also awareness of poverty. I appreciate how this takes challenges our perspective to stay and focused on raising our's and other's awareness of poverty.

May God bless us with discomfort At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships So that we may live from deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of God's creations So that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless us with tears To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war, So that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and To turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with just enough foolishness To believe that we can make a difference in the world, So that we can do what others claim cannot be done: To bring justice and kindness to all our children and all our neighbors who are poor. Amen.

It rained a little bit today. Here you can see what happens to our bikes when it rains.

Actually someone had their bike on the ground when it rained and it left this shadow.

Today I rode with Dave and Liz Meyer. I had a great time and it made the long boring day go faster. Thanks for making it fun! Especially on the long straight roads.

Can you figure out what this sign means?

As we came into Craig we had a fierce headwind and we saw dark clouds looming in the distance. Later at night, as I wrote some blog posts I could see lightning off in the distance. It was relaxing to watch.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but I am continuously saying "where are we?" This tour is so fast that I basically get up, bike, get to camp, eat, setup and get ready for morning, and sleep. So all the days blend together and I confuse where I am.

The road was very busy today. To make matters worse, there was a rumble strip in the middle of the shoulder, forcing us to bike on the white line. This made for a crowded road with cars and trucks on both sides of the road.

Today we crossed over into Colorado. Even though it is supposed to be colorful Colorado, it seems to be severely lacking color.

We road through a town (Vensas? I don't remember the name) but all the streets with just numbers. Typically in this situation, just the north-south or the east-west roads are numbered. But here the streets are numbered both ways. For instance I was standing at the corner of 500 w and 500 s at one point. This was very confusing.

Right towards the end we crossed into Colorado and ended in the city of Dinosaur. In fact this area marks one of the four corners of Dinosaur Diamond, the area where Dinosaur bones are typically found.

Today was a hard day again. We started off with a hazy sky which stayed the same for most of the day, except when the sun peaked from behind the clouds a couple of times. Today the scenery was more exciting again. The roads were fairly quiet too, which always helps.

I rode with Christeena for most of the day. I enjoyed her talking and riding with her for the day. We climbed the pass (yes, another mountain range) today and biked all the way up to 9485 feet which was an 8% grade. I always feel a sense of accomplishment and pride when I get to the top. I feel like I conquered the world.

I could tell the air was thinner. When you breath you feel like you aren't breathing anything in. Normally I can feel a breathe in the roof of my mouth, but towards the top nothing. So, I took lots of breaks on the way up to catch my breath. We knew we were getting high up when the roads have a gate and notice that they are closed to all vehicles in the winter and there were no houses past that point.

Later in the day we went through Starvation Park, where it was again desert.

Also, these long straight roads make it seem like you don't get anywhere at all. They just keep going and going.

After a long day of riding you can see peoples hair sticking out the top of their helmet and their hair is usually formed into nice rows. Look here at Byran Flikkema's hair.

Today we had another rainbow.

Also, I woke up this morning to Poisin Ivy. I was already having a hard time getting started, but I was even more discouraged once I found this out.

Today is a rest day in Park City at Jordanelle State Park. I love that we are at a state park and not a school. There isn't group camping so we have about fifty campsites for all of us. I found a nice spot on the far side of the hill over looking the water. It was nice and secluded so it was great to have time to myself, instead of waking up each morning to the clanging of early-birds clanging their tent poles as they take their tent down.

Doug Lutke found a cell phone today, so I tracked down the owner and left it at the ranger station. So that's two phones I've rescued this week. I was clever though and put my Sea to Sea card in it so maybe they'll make a donation.

I went into Park City and walked through town. I bought my groceries and then went back and relaxed a little.

Then it was a potluck dinner and celebration service by the local church. They also brought some local beers so it was great trying some. I then went back to my campsite and read and went to bed early. I hope we stay at more places like this.

During dinner, a storm was blowing through and it sprinkled a little and blewing like mad. Afterwards, a full rainbow appeared. Little did I know that for the next four nights would we see rainbows.

Today I biked through Salt Lake City and into Park City. I kept expecting countryside but the whole way was sprawled suburbs of the city.

On the way, I found a phone on the side of the road. I put it together and called one of the people in the address book. I ended up talking to the owner and told her I left it at the gas station, where she could pick it up. I was glad to have helped.

I wanted to explore the city, however knowing that the day was going to be long and difficult I decided to stay focused on getting to my destination. I did manage to see the huge Mormon temple from a distance. Along the way, First CRC of Salt Lake invited us for snacks and drinks at their church along the way. I was aiming to get there by noon and I arrived at 12:04. Pretty good, huh? I could blame the extra time on the red lights I had to stop for.

I then took an hour at the church to eat, drink, socialize, and take a nap. Shortly after the church there was a steep short hill. It was very steep. It was probably close to 10-12% or enough that you feel like your going to tip over backwards.

After the steep short hill we started are climb. Today had the most total climbing of any day yet. It was beautiful to climb into the mountains and slowly wind in between huge peaks.

So I did the first 60 miles in about 4 1/2 hours which was marked by arriving at the church. Then the last 40 miles took 5 1/2 hours for a total of over 8 hours on the bike. Stop. And think about how long of a time that is! It was slow slow going up the hill.

After we climbed a couple of mountains (I love saying that). We rode through Park City which hosted the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. We could see lots of chateaus and housing that were made to host all the athletes and visitors. Also we saw the ski hills and jumps, and lots of other Olympic related scenery.

In a Sociology class my prof talked about Polygamy Porter, a local brew. I saw a couple of bottles but I wished I would have bought one as a souvenir.

At the church today, I ran into some people that my parents knew from church, the Cunninghams. It was fun to connect with them and talk about home, even though they live in Salt Lake City now.

I broke my top speed record today at 50.8 mph. Yikes thats fast, but oh so fun. I also did my first century (100 miles) today. Now I can say that I did a century and my first one was crossing a mountain or two!